


No Easy Answers

by Medie



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Batman (Movies - Nolan), DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Crossover, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-27
Updated: 2012-11-27
Packaged: 2017-11-19 16:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/575395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one has to tell Quentin that when he sits down and reads the paper that first morning. Every cop in the country's heard about the Bat long before the news hits the media, clogging up every news outlet from blogs to CNN. Gotham's new self-appointed protector is a legend the world over in a flurry of black cape and whispered gossip. Hollywood starts talking, reporters hopping flights to get there, and Quentin can already see where this is going to go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Easy Answers

**Author's Note:**

> for the ever awesome miladygrey who is a total enabler.

The woman is a terrorist. A menace, a terrorist, and a goddamn nightmare.

No one has to tell Quentin that when he sits down and reads the paper that first morning. Every cop in the country's heard about the Bat long before the news hits the media, clogging up every news outlet from blogs to CNN. Gotham's new self-appointed protector is a legend the world over in a flurry of black cape and whispered gossip. Hollywood starts talking, reporters hopping flights to get there, and Quentin can already see where this is going to go. 

Even if no one else can. 

"She's a menace," he mutters, listening to a commentator drone on about Gotham's broken system and the plague of corruption and brutality infesting it. It'll end in innocent blood. 

He's proven right, too, when the Dent killing happens, and Batwoman becomes Gotham's public enemy number one. 

Thing of it is that no one wants to believe it. 

Doesn't take long for the rumors to surface and spread like a virus. It all starts when some of Dent's psychiatric reports get leaked, followed up by eyewitness reports of him being seen around the city burned and carrying a gun. After that, the Batwoman's defenders come out in full force and the conspiracy theories multiply into legion.

Even Laurel gets into it. "I don't know, Dad," she says, biting her lip. "We've been talking about her in class--the reports about Dent's mental instability aren't exaggerated. He was dealing with severe issues and there are some holes in Commissioner Gordon's story..." she taps her fingernail against her notepad and he can see Gordon's name scribbled there with question marks and shorthand that looks like chicken scratch to him. "It's like he doesn't want to be believed."

"Like he's lying?" He shakes his head. "Man's old-school cop, sweetheart. Besides, doesn't make a damn bit of sense to be lying about this. He's got every cop in the city chasing her."

"Not all of them, but that's not the point. Maybe she asked him to," Laurel says, earnest. "Think about it. Who makes a better face for the city to rally behind? A woman in a mask, hiding in the shadows, or a heroic martyr killed in defense of the greater good?"

He doesn't answer her, but they both know she's right. It makes sense and he starts watching Gordon in interviews; the reluctance getting more and more obvious as time goes on. 

The worst of it is the doubt that starts creeping in after that. Doesn't hurt to have a local on the force keeping up her side. Drake, one of the rookies in the precinct, grew up in Gotham. Still visits on holidays and he comes back from Christmas sporting a tattoo on his shoulder.

A bat.

"What the hell is that?" 

Quentin's not the one that asks, but he's been wanting to. He watches as Drake glares and finishes tugging on his uniform. "It's what it looks like," he says, and slams his locker closed. "You wanna make something of it?"

No one does, because as scrawny as Drake is, the kid's a fighter who works the hardest beats in the city without even blinking. Starling City's never going to be Gotham, thank God, but it's not exactly Metropolis either. 

"They're curious," he says, when Drake slips out of the locker room. "A cop wearing the mark of a terrorist? Not exactly good for the professional rep."

"Don't give a flying fuck about my rep, Detective," Drake says back. "She saved my best friend's kid. Back when all that shit went down in the Narrows. She's still saving people, just quieter about it now." 

"She's a terrorist, Tim," Quentin lays a hand on the kid's shoulder, catching his eye. "She might mean well, but she's a terrorist. The law might not be perfect--"

"Fuck the law," Drake glares at him, angry now. "You don't get it, Lance. You never had to grow up there. You don't know how the city was before she showed up. Back then, you could put a bullet in the mayor's head in front of the courthouse and, just as long as you were paid up with the right people, you'd get away with it. Falcone and Thorne? They owned that city. Divided it up between 'em like it was their God-given right. Hell, about the only people with enough money to fight back were the Waynes and look what happened to them. Batwoman made those bastards think twice. You can't buy her off, you can't scare her, and you can't stop her; you fuck with her city, you pay. If you're a cop? You pay double. Internal Affairs? They practically built her a shrine. Most of the force used to be on the take. These days? Most of them are too scared shitless to even take a free cup of coffee." 

He breaks away from Quentin, but only going so far as to lean against the wall. He's young, this kid, but he's the oldest person that Quentin knows and he's including himself in that count.

"The Commissioner and the MCU, they talk big on the news and in the papers, but it's lip service. Everybody knows the score. Dent went off the skids when Rachel Dawes was murdered and if it weren't for the Batwoman, Barbara Gordon would've been an orphan. Bastard took her brother and her parents. He wasn't gonna let them go home. Not until the Batwoman found them."

He sighs. "Maybe it's not the right way. Maybe she is a terrorist, but she gave us that city back and that's the only thing I care about." 

Quentin doesn't have an answer to that. 

He's not sure there is one, but if there is?

He knows he's not ready to face it.


End file.
